Mastering Crystal Reports 9

Overview

Need charts? Need graphs? Need spreadsheet-like analysis? You’ve got the right tool! While tabular data presented as rows and columns in a report imparts essential detail information, the analysis of the data is left to the person reading the report. After combing through row after row of data values, an employee can analyze the data and come up with a summary statement like “Our sales are slipping in the Caribbean sector.” Charts, graphs, maps, and cross-tabs can be used to sift through the data to graphically depict a trend or major points faster than a human could do it. Many people also find it easier to understand graphical information than detailed data. At many management meetings, all the boss wants to see is a chart summarizing the point of the meeting. Visual analysis can summarize data to answer business questions in a more absorbable format than detail data values. In this chapter, we’ll explore the visual analysis capabilities for representing detail and summarized data.

Featured in this chapter:

• Creating charts with the Chart Expert

• Understanding the integrated chart types

• Placing a chart effectively in a report

• Using built-in and user-defined chart templates

• Finessing a chart with in-place editing and chart options

• Creating maps for geographic data using the Map Expert

• Adding geographic layers to report maps

• Creating two-dimensional cross-tabulation reports

• Customizing cross-tabs with percentage values and groups

• Understanding OLAP grid options

• Using Analyzer to interact with OLAP data